Panel Vision - Giant-Sized Man-Thing #4

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So, as I write this one of the big cultural deals of the moment is a new Netflix series called 13 Reasons Why.  It’s a teenage melodrama revolving around the suicide of a young woman and the collection of cassette tapes she left behind explaining her 13 reasons why.  It’s gotten quite a bit of controversy, mostly from groups of actual experts on suicide prevention who are mad that the show misrepresents the actual circumstances that can lead to suicide as well as prevents a graphic depiction of the act itself.  

However, being a massive geek, this format of gritty high school realism, post-mortem messages to the living, and deconstructing the performance grief mandated in the wake of a tragedy reminded me of one of the best forgotten comic stories of all time.  Coming to us from way back in 1975, it’s an extra-long comic story under the name of The Kid’s Night Out, courtesy of one of the greatest comic book authors of all time alongside his most underrated creation- Steve Gerber’s Man-Thing. 

What the Spear of Destiny means for Legends of Tomorrow

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If you’re watching Legends of Tomorrow, the mid-season finale this year revealed a pretty significant plot point for both the show and the CWniverse as a whole.  It was shown that this season’s villains, the Legion of Doom, are in search of the Spear of Destiny, an incredibly powerful mystic artifact.  They explain in the episode that the Spear, more commonly known as the Spear of Longinus, is the same Spear that the Roman soldier used to pierce the side of Christ during the crucifixion. 

That fact has afforded it tremendous power, though Legends of Tomorrow was a little unclear what that power was.  Though the Spear of Longinus is a real world artifact of note, it also has a long and storied history in DC comics that hints at some major shake-ups and new additions to the Legends’ roster. 

10 Characters We Might See in Dark Universe (Justice League Dark)

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Edited by Robert Beach 

Well, I don’t think anyone saw this one coming. If you asked me or anyone else last week what was happening with the Justice League Dark movie, they would’ve told you it was probably dead, especially when WB premiered that animated adaptation at SDCC.  The fact that the project is alive at all is pretty shocking, but that it’s poached Gambit director Doug Liman and is getting ready to enter casting comes completely out of nowhere. 

Also, the film is now being titled Dark Universe. No doubt this name change will set it apart from the light, cheerful, wholesome universe of the previous DC films. I don’t mind the name shift given the JLD has always included pretty much every magic user in the DCU, but it’s not like DC was bereft of names to apply to that group. As you’re about to see, DC has a long history of magic teams like this one. 

Joe Dinicol Cast as Ragman in Arrow S5

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As we move into the 4^th year of CW’s superhero dominance a bizarre question has begun to emerge: how do you solve a problem like Arrow?  The Green Arrow show was the first of CW’s new crop of comic book adaptations, premiering in 2012 and setting the tone for 3 years of superhero television and impacting sister shows like Gotham and even Agents of SHIELD.  However, the 2012 was a long time ago and the superhero television landscape has definitely shifted under Arrow’s feet, with the drab and stripped down aesthetic of the first 3 seasons left in the dust by the likes of The Flash, Supergirl, and Legends of Tomorrow. 

Arrow has just become a lot less relevant to CW’s expansive universe of shows and season 4’s increased focus on magic didn’t really help things.  As such, season 5 has opted to double down on the one thing that worked for season 4: introducing new heroes, with a crop of new characters coming to the upcoming premiere.  I’ve already covered Wild Dog, Vigilante, and Human Target, now meet Ragman, the Tatterdemalion of Justice, played by Joe Dinicol. 

12 Series Telltale Should Adapt Next

Edited by Robert Beach 

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Another E3 has come to an end, and even though I’m not a video game blog (I leave that for my day job), I am a citizen of the Internet. Thus, I am aware of the goings on in the nerd domain.  There wasn’t much comic book-related stuff coming out of this E3, but we did see some interesting stuff about Telltale Games’s new Batman game.  

While many folks love their morality test set-up, I had trouble contextualizing it before I realized what kind of games I’d like to see it deployed in. I’m more on board with Telltale now compared to the past, even though I’m not a big fan of them doing a Batman game.  As such, I came up with 12 series that would really benefit from a Telltale game; let us list them. 

Cover Story - Top 15 Nick Fury Covers

Edited by Robert Beach 

Hello, and welcome to Cover Story: digging as little into comic books as we can. Cover Story isn’t exactly a new column around here as I’ve been doing “Top Cover” lists since August. now, I’m just giving it a name and making it an official weekly column alongside Comics Rainbow and Movie Monthly. With that said, let’s dive into this week’s cover subject: Nick Fury. 

I’ve already talked at length about Nick Fury earlier this week and how he served as Marvel’s super spy answer to James Bond, and how he’s been through numerous iterations in his 50-year history.  I’m mainly focusing on him because Spectre came out this week, and I’m a sucker for topicality. At the same time, Nick Fury’s various covers feature work by some of the greatest artists in comic book history, including Jim Steranko, a towering legend of the medium and concept artist for Indiana Jones. So let’s dive into the shallow end and get the cover story on the top 15 Nick Fury covers. 

Comics Rainbow - Nick Fury

So, this Friday marks the return of James Bond to cinemas everywhere.  It’s probably going to be a big deal as director Sam Mendes, the man who brought back widespread audience interest in the Bond franchise.  Additionally it’s starting to look more and more likely that Daniel Craig won’t be sticking with the franchise for much longer so this will probably be the last chances audiences get to see a Bond who can actually do his own stunts.  

Add on top of all that the increasing return to golden age Bond formula with the reemergence of Spectre as villains and Christoph Waltz playing some kind of Bloefeld esc villain and it’s promising to be a memorable blockbuster, especially after Skyfall gripped the world in Bond-mania and made more than double the box office take as its predecessor.  With all that considered I was going to do a Comics Rainbow about James Bond but James Bond doesn’t really have a comic book presence. 

For most of his career the adaptation rights have flittered from one limbo to another while his more adult nature as a character has kept his adventures out of the standard comic book audience.  Remember, for most of the medium’s history comics were made for kids.  However, I’m still getting in on the Bond fun with the next best character: Nick Fury.  Though he debuted in a brief lived Marvel war comic in 1963, Nick Fury didn’t find a mainstream audience till 1965, when he was resurrected as a James Bond/Man from U.N.C.L.E. esc cold war spy.  This was right around the time spies were catching on as a major popular trend so it makes sense Marvel would want to ride that cultural phenomenon.  Since then the Marvel universe super spy has been through a plethora of reimaginings and revitalizations and this is your full spectrum look at all of them; shades, shames, successes and all. 

Comics Rainbow - Batman Family

So, this past week Gotham revealed the central mystery around its new villain Theo Galavan.  The “big reveal” of was that Galavan was actually a radical revision of the Batman supporting hero Azrael and the Order of Saint Dumas, now reimagined as a disgraced Gotham family returning to seek revenge on the Waynes.  It’s a pretty dumb idea that got me thinking about how much I hate Gotham, but also how much I love Azrael and Batman’s extended roster of fellow heroes.  Batman has one of the largest rosters of supporting heroes out there and the idea of Batman working alongside other heroes has been furrowed into the character almost since the beginning.  As much as people like to believe Batman is a deadly lone squirrel he’s definitely a pack animal, as best demonstrated by the major success enjoyed by both the Bat Family comic line and the Brave and the Bold comics and shows that paired him with fellow heroes.  So, this is your full spectrum look at the Batman Family in all their shades, shames, and successes.  

Static Thoughts - 10 Superheroes We Could See in Gotham Season 2

Edited by Robert Beach 

Gotham is DC Comics show for Fox that focus on the world of Gotham City. The show is formatted as a Batman prequel story exploring the origins of a lot of his famous villains and allies. So far, we’ve seen several Batman villains make appearance on the series like Penguin and Black Mask as well as some major masterminds and crime lords like Don Falcone or the Dollmaker; however, the show has been slowly shifting in tone and focus with the upcoming season packing a more comic book-y punch than season 1. 

This is probably due to Gotham’s floundering sense of identity coupled with the blockbuster success of more faithful adaptations like Arrow, Flash, and Agents of SHIELD. Given this, it’s only a matter of time before we start seeing actual superheroes show up on Gotham. Already, a younger version of Azrael has been confirmed for season 2 and future heroic allies like Renee Montoya and Crispus Allen have been established on the show. So I thought of 10 superheroes we might see in Gotham season 2.  

Ant-Man Holds #1 Against Pixels

Well this is a surprise.  Last week I reported that Ant-Man had enjoyed a strong weekend opening and beat Minions at the #1 spot by a small enough margin to indicate I wasn’t at all hopeful for a sequel.  From there I had assumed, like a lot of other critics I think, that Ant-Man would respectively slip from #1 this week and settle into the middle tear slots before exiting theaters in later August.  Instead Ant-Man held the #1 spot for a second week, passing the 100,000,000 mark on projections and is currently ranked as the 16^th highest grossing film of the year.  That might seem like a high number but similarly offbeat oddities like Rise of the Planet of the Apes or Marvel’s own Thor have managed to turn top 20 success into decent box office clout.   

Obviously the year still has time left for Ant-Man to get bumped from its holding, especially given that Hunger Games, Goosebumps, Spectre, and Star Wars are all waiting in the wind but this is still big news regardless.  Meanwhile Adam Sandler’s Pixels may not be dead on arrival but it’s a strong statement of development that his movie couldn’t overcome a middling Marvel product in its 2^nd week the way Grown Ups 2 beat Pacific Rim two years ago. 

Devil Dinosaur, Clone Saga, & Marvel's Future

So the numbers are officially in and Jurassic World has beaten Avengers as the third highest grossing film of all time, earning it a sequel that will go head-to-head with Avengers: Infinity War part 1.  This marks yet another major defeat for Marvel who’ve shaped up to have a pretty bad year all around.  Age of Ultron has been subsumed in the wake of hits like Furious 7 and Jurassic World with more competition coming this fall between Spectre and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  What’s more Ant-Man hasn’t shown a lot of audience interest and critically it’s only served to raise a lot of problematic issues with the Marvel universe as a whole.  The only Marvel projects that seem to really be gelling with audiences these days are episodic in nature, stuff like the major interest in Agent Carter, Agents of SHIELD finally finding a major audience, and Daredevil ending up a major cultural hit.  What does all this mean for Marvel going forward?  Could we be seeing the end of Marvel Studios?

James Bond 'Spectre' Full Trailer

All things considered it’s not really that surprising it took the James Bond franchise all of the 2000s till it became relevant again.  James Bond entered the 2000s with the deplorably bloated and embarrassingly outdated Die Another Day before failing to find a substantial audience outside dedicated fans and upper level critics with the stripped down, gritty reworking under Daniel Craig.  Then came the geek awakening of 2008, which is what really set the stage for 007’s return to prominence 4 years later.  On the one hand 2008 helped re-solidify Batman as one of the most popular heroes on the planet, which goes a long way in James Bond’s favor given both characters are globe-trotting adventurers fighting colorful megalomaniacs with a pile of gadgets. 

On the flip side Marvel’s cinematic universe took over the box office and suddenly sprawling inter-film continuity and classic era fidelity were cool again.  That’s why Skyfall ended up like it did, full of recreations of classic Bond elements rather than the stymied realism of previous installments and even redefining James as a more Bruce Wayne like character with dead parents and a mansion.  Now, as we prep for Bond’s next installment director Sam Mendes seems to be doubling down on the classic series revival elements for Spectre in its new full trailer.